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Italians

Club Marconi Fairfield

Long a landmark in Sydney's west, Club Marconi has served the social, cultural and sporting needs of Sydney's Italians for over 50 years.

Italians

There were Italians in Sydney before the proclamation of Italy in 1861 and stonemasons, fishermen, market gardeners and manufacturers have left their mark on the city. Expanded Italian immigration after World War II brought a strong sense of community and culture that has enriched and enlivened Sydney's cuisine and city life.

Spagnoletti, Ernesto

Two musicians by the name of Ernesto Spagnoletti, father and son, were prominent in the musical life of Sydney in the 1850s.

Mr Domenico Scuglia was born in Italy in 1924, came to Liverpool in 1937, and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He discusses here the restrictions placed on free movement of Italians in Australia during World War II, due to Italy's membership of the Axis Powers.

Transcript: Mr John Costa recalls his family feeding American Italian soldiers on their Liverpool farm during World War II

Mr John Costa was born in 1928 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. Here he recalls his family feeding Italian American soldiers on their farm during World War II.

Transcript: Mrs Carmel Amalfi describes a devastating hailstorm in Liverpool in the 1930s

Mrs Carmel Amalfi, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool' oral history project, describes a hail storm on the family farm in Liverpool in the 1930s

Transcript: Mrs Carmel Amalfi describes her husband Angelo's work as a child on his father's farm in Liverpool in the 1930s

Mrs Carmel Amalfi, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project, describes her husband Angelo's work as a child on his father's farm in Liverpool in the 1930s.

Arrivederci Roma

Radio program hosted by Lena Gustin in the post war period, providing a forum for Italian immigrants.

Melocco, Galliano Eugenio

Melocco, Pietro Olivo

Founder of Melocco Bros, mosaic manufacturers who were notable for marble and terrazzo work in numerous city buildings including the the Crypt of St Mary's Cathedral, Anzac Memorial, State Theatre and the Mitchell Library.

Ramaciotti, Gustave

Ravenet, Juan

Italian-born figure painter who sailed with a Spanish expedition commanded by Alejandro Malaspina aboard the corvettes Descuvierta and Atrevida. He sketched striking portraits of an Aboriginal man and woman after his arrival in Sydney.

Luigi Coluzzi on Sydney coffee culture 2009

Mr Domenico Scuglia was born in Italy in 1924, came to Liverpool in 1937, and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He discusses here the restrictions placed on free movement of Italians in Australia during World War II, due to Italy's membership of the Axis Powers.
Transcript

DOMENICO: During the war you couldn't go out of Liverpool, a certain distance. If you planned to go anywhere on business you had to get a permit, to let you go. Provided that you didn't get into trouble, and we carried on like that, we had no problems

INTERVIEWER: That was because you are Italian?

DOMENICO: Yes, that was for the war years.

INTERVIEWER: Did your family resent that at all?

DOMENICO: No, you're there and that's it; you had to do it. My father used to never go out or cause trouble or anything and everybody could see that. We had no problem.

INTERVIEWER: You didn't get any harassment from the local people during the war?

DOMENICO: No, no, not here because as I said we knew nearly everybody; small town. Tell you what, they did intern some naturalised [Italians]; it all depended on political involvement. But the majority wasn't naturalised. We applied for it, and they refused our naturalisation during the war years. After the war we applied again and got it through. Actually, we weren't interned but [we were] in the area, in the town itself. If you wanted to go anywhere you asked for a permit and they gave you a permit. You behave yourself and you can get it again.

INTERVIEWER: Who did you have to go to?

DOMENICO: The police.

INTERVIEWER: The Liverpool police?

DOMENICO: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: And what were they like?

DOMENICO: They were alright. As I said we used to know everybody, we used to know the sergeant in charge because his kids and us go to school together, friendly, you know.

INTERVIEWER: Did you ever have to request to go out further than the seven miles [limit]?

DOMENICO: If you had to go on business they would give you [a permit]; but if not, if it was just for pleasure, 'no'. They'd say 'What do you want it for, what are you going to do over there?' and if you say 'visit a friend' well, 'no'. If I had to look for something to do with the farm, then 'yes'. That was fair enough, I think. They used to call us 'aliens', enemies, see? Not the Greeks, not the Russians because they were Allies; but we had nothing to do with the war, they started the war over the other side [of the world]. If you had crook neighbours, and they kept reporting you every day, you had a headache, I tell you.

INTERVIEWER: And what were your neighbours like?

DOMENICO: Very good. Once in a while they used to go there [the police station] every week, they told us long afterwards; always told them [the police] '8 o'clock [Scuglia family] turn the lights out and they're in bed.'

INTERVIEWER: So they would report on you once a week?

DOMENICO: They [the police] were checking up, to see our movements, thought we might be spies or something. We had none of that, we got on all right. [1]

(Excerpt from interview with Mr Domenico Scuglia, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

...

Mr John Costa was born in 1928 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. Here he recalls his mother feeding American soldiers on their Italian family farm during World War II.
Transcript

JOHN: My parents were from Italy, from Sicily. My father came out and three years after my mother came out. My people, they came to Chipping Norton, we had a vineyard there and a market garden and I can remember then across the river from our place there was Warwick Farm Racecourse, where quite a few American sailors were in there at the time and they used to come across the river. The river at that time you could walk across it at low tide, it wasnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t very deep, and they used to come around and up to the house, ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“cause a lot of Americans were Italians too, and they used to come over there and have feeds of spaghetti and stuff, Mum used to feed them. I can never forget their faces (we had a couple of cows) they used to like milk shakes, egg flips, and all that sort of thing. They really made us at home - we used to go across with them and they used to give us a few supplies, to keep us going because we had a family, IÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢m from a family of ten, and they were all born around the Liverpool area, all except my sister [who] was born in Pamarea in Italy.

(Excerpt from interview with Mr John Costa, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mr John Costa recalls the gypsies who were once common in the Liverpool area, interviewed in 1986

Mr John Costa was born in 1928 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. Here he remembers gypsies who were once common in the Liverpool area.

Transcript

JOHN: We used to grow vegetables like potatoes, beans, beetroot, and why I remember beetroot and potatoes is because we had them up the far end of the farm, right up the back end of the farm, and down Milperra Bridge there was a big vacant block of ground there, where those shops are at Milperra now, that was all vacant blocks of ground. And on that paddock there used to be not dozens but hundreds of gypsies used to stop there, they were everywhere, they'd camp there for about two, three months. And how I remember the beetroot and potatoes because they used to go down the end of our farm and bandicoot them and dig them up and just leave the vines sitting there, they used to take sacks and sacks of them.

INTERVIEWER: What did they live in?

JOHN: Gypsies? Tents. They had great big cars. I'll never forget the size of the cars, they were huge cars. They'd come around and tell your fortune. Just up the road there, there was a sawmill and they went to the people next door to the sawmill and told them to bring their family out and 'we'll tell you your fortune'. And they came out to the front and they told them their fortune alright; when they went around to feed the chooks in the afternoon there wasn't any left! They were all gone! I'll never forget those gypsies. They'd go away for about twelve months, come back here the following year.

(Excerpt from interview with Mr John Costa, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

Mrs Carmel Amalfi describes a hailstorm on her father-in-law's Liverpool market garden in March 1947, recorded 1986

Mrs Carmel Amalfi, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool' oral history project, describes a hailstorm on the family farm in Liverpool in the 1930s.
Transcript

CARMEL: In 1947, it was early March '47, we got a real real bad one. Your father-in-law had, what was it, about 10 acres (approximately 4 hectares) of land that was all under cultivation and we had beans, we had tomatoes, we had lettuce and when the hailstorm came, it looked as if you let a few thousand chickens through it and made a mess of them 'cause on the tomato vines there was only left the stake that was holding them up. The lettuce, they were good for nothing. The beans, there was nothing left but the stalks. So poor Poppy, he went down to have a look to see what happened and the hearts of the lettuce, there was nothing there. Poor Poppy was walking back and forwards saying 'What am I going to do? I've got a big family!'

(Detail from interview with Mrs Carmel Amalfi from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)

...

Mrs Carmel Amalfi, interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool' oral history project, describes her husband Angelo's work as a child on his father's farm in Liverpool in the 1930s.
Transcript

CARMEL: He was on the farm helping his dad, the same with the rest of the family. Helping, working on the land and those days there, by the time he grew, he was about ten years of age, his father had a big family. They had a horse and plough, and he was behind the horse and plough when he was about eleven. And he used to help his dad and when it came to selling the vegetables. His dad used to send him to the city, after the vegetables, send it by carrier, and then he'd stay in the city overnight with an old friend of theirs, and the next morning he'd go to the markets and sell it, and then come home, come home by train. He was only about eleven. They'd get a stall or a stand at the markets and he'd help and sell the vegetables. And then he'd come home, he'd come home the next day, either with the carrier or come home by train. And as the rest of the family grew up of course they did their share too.

(Detail from interview with Mrs Carmel Amalfi from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith.)